Chelsea Clinton Leaves Door Open To Running For Office

August 14, 2012

By AMY BINGHAM

Image Credit: Vogue

Chelsea Clinton may follow in her parents' footsteps after all. After years of shooting down rumors that she may run for office, the 32-year-old Clinton left the door open to having another Clinton on the electoral ballots.

"Before my mom's campaign I would have said no," Clinton said in an interview published in the latest issue of Vogue magazine. "And now I don't know. . ."

"If there were to be a point where it was something I felt called to do and I didn't think there was someone who was sufficiently committed to building a healthier, more just, more equitable, more productive world?" Clinton continued. "Then that would be a question I'd have to ask and answer."

Clinton, who married investment banker Mark Mezvinsky in 2010, said that after the media circus surrounding her wedding, she realized that her celebrity was either "something I could continue to ignore or it was something I could try to use to highlight causes that I really cared about," she told Vogue.

"Historically I deliberately tried to lead a private life in the public eye," she said. "And now I am trying to lead a purposefully public life."

The only daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said people have been pestering her about running for office her entire life.

"It was something I had thought a lot about because people have been asking me that my whole life," Clinton said. "Even during my father's 1984 gubernatorial campaign, it was, 'Do you want to grow up and be governor one day?' No. I am four."

At her age, Bill Clinton already held public office, serving as Arkansas attorney general from age 31. But it was not until age 54 that her mom first stepped into elected office as a U.S. senator.

"I believe that there are many ways for each of us to play our part," Clinton told Vogue. "For a very long time that's what my mom did. And then she went into elected public life. Her life is a testament to the principle that there are many ways to serve."